The Financial Times plans to invest heavily in a brand experience campaign this summer, aimed at supporting its recently-launched global marketing push for the FT Weekend section. As part of its plans, it has just hired Tamara Gates, formerly with TV, film and ad production and visual effects specialists Moving Picture Company, in a new role as experiential marketing manager. Her remit will include managing the planned brand experience activities.

The new Open Minds campaign for FT Weekend was inspired by the section’s colourful and provocative journalism and aims to encourage stronger engagement with FT Weekend by the FT’s core business audience, while attracting new readers to its world-class coverage of arts, culture, ideas  and lifestyle.

The campaign, which builds on a 2017 refresh and rebrand of FT Weekend under editor Alec Russell, will have two phases. The first will include out-of-home, digital display, online video and retail elements in high profile locations in London, Hong Kong and New York’s Times Square. The second phase, in the summer, will have a major experiential focus, marking a new direction for the Financial Times.

The creative concept and execution of Open Minds have been developed in partnership with The Brooklyn Brothers. The visually striking phase-one adverts were designed by a variety of illustrators and inspired by a range of thought-provoking FT Weekend articles:

• ‘Is mind control the tech industry’s greatest invention?’ (pictured) challenges readers to question their relationship with the smartphone.
• ‘Can we separate the art from the artist?’ challenges people to think about the character flaws of renowned artists and entertainers;
• ‘Is age a disease we can cure?’ poses questions about wellbeing and mortality;

Financial Times chief communications and marketing officer, Finola McDonnell, says: “We have created this campaign with editorial content at its centre to have strong visual and intellectual impact, sparking debate and conversation – exactly what FT Weekend aims to do. We’re positioning the FT Weekend as an essential read for those interested in arts, culture, ideas and lifestyle, just as the Financial Times and ft.com are essential to our core business readership.”

FT Weekend editor Alec Russell adds: “This campaign goes to the heart of my ambition for the journalism in FT Weekend each week. It is sharp, provocative, probing and embraces the big ideas of our age – yet it is also tinged with mischief.”

The campaign will be supported by social media activity on the FT’s Facebook, Twitter (@FTWeekendand @FTLifeArts) and Instagram (@FT_Weekend) accounts with the hashtag #FTOpenMinds. The articles which inspired the campaign can all be found outside the FT’s paywall at FT.com/OpenMinds.

The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading business news organisations, recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy.  The FT marks 130 years in 2018 with a record paying readership of more than 930,000. The FT is now a majority digital content business, with digital subscriptions up to 739,554, representing more than three-quarters of the total paying audience. Content revenues represent almost two-thirds of total revenues, double the share of five years ago.

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Danish online start-up LuggageHero, which allows tourists to drop off their luggage at local shops, pubs and other retail outlets so they can make the most of their holiday time, has launched in London with the help of brand ambassadors from staffing and experiential providers StreetPR.

LuggageHero was set up in Copenhagen in 2016 and became an overnight success, offering tourists to the Danish capital a more flexible, more widely available and cheaper alternative to traditional station and airport left-luggage depots and storage lockers. By recruiting shops and other retail outlets with spare storage space around Copenhagen, LuggageHero quickly built up a network of local outlets in convenient locations.

The concept – dubbed “the Uber of luggage storage” by the Danish media – has now come to London and has already signed up more than 60 locations around the UK capital. Launching at the start of May 2017 with a major leafleting campaign handled by StreetPR’s brand ambassadors, the concept is already proving extremely popular with tourists arriving at key transport hubs such as Victoria Coach Station and mainline rail stations.

Retailers have also been eager to sign up, with some brand ambassadors saying they have been chased down the street by shopkeepers wanting to find out how to get on board.

Tourists pay an initial fee of €2 and then €1 per standard bag per hour. Insurance cover of up to €670 per item is included in the fee. Retailers get half the fees collected, with the rest going to LuggageHero.

Travellers can find the most convenient location for them on the company’s website and then book storage online. Payment is automatically collected online once items are picked up, so people only pay for the hours used.

Jannik Lawaetz, founder of LuggageHero (pictured at a Copenhagen retailer which is member of the scheme), says: “LuggageHero has rethought the way luggage storage works in larger cities. Local shops have the capacity as well as the desire to welcome tourists and their luggage. We’ve tested and fine-tuned the concept over the past six months in Copenhagen, and we’re now ready for London. We’ve been recruiting shops and cafes here in London with huge success over the past few months. They are really keen on the idea and the extra traffic LuggageHero will bring to their store. Being the biggest luggage storage provider already is a great accomplishment and start for us in this new and very important market.”

Dorian Payne, Operations Director at StreetPR adds: “LuggageHero is a brilliant idea which is going to revolutionise the left-luggage business and will also bring in incremental revenue for retailers, pubs and restaurants – not just from the fees but also from the footfall. Every tourist who comes in to drop off or collect luggage is an opportunity to sell.”

Launched by entrepreneur James Rix in 2012, StreetPR is the biggest individual supplier of staff to London’s competitive nightlife industry and in recent years has expanded to supply promotional staff and brand ambassadors to gyms, hotels, restaurants, event and festival organisers, retailers, sports and event stadia, the public sector, FMCG brands, telecoms and tech companies. More recently, it has won significant business from online services providers including Deliveroo, Gousto, Hello Fresh and Hassle.

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Eagle Eye, the SaaS technology company which validates and redeems digital promotions in real-time for the grocery, retail and hospitality industries, has won a new three year contract with John Lewis PLC for the deployment of its Eagle Eye AIR platform to deliver improved digital customer marketing.

Tim Mason, CEO of Eagle Eye, says: “We are delighted to have won this contract and to be imbedding Eagle Eye’s technology as an integral part of John Lewis’s digital strategy. John Lewis is a market-leading, high-profile retailer and this win further reinforces the clear competitive benefits our solutions deliver to retailers.”

Mason adds: “Consumers are increasingly using mobile as their preferred channel and savvy retailers are using digital promotions as a key driver to enhance customer engagement. Eagle Eye has the proven technology to capitalise on this structural industry shift.”

Eagle Eye’s digital marketing platform, Eagle Eye AIR, enables the secure, real-time, multi-channel issuance, management and redemption of digital promotions and rewards, replacing previously used paper-based methods. The Eagle Eye platform creates a network effect between merchants, distributors and brands enabling stronger connections and value to all parties.

Current customers include Asda, J Sainsbury, Greggs, JD Sports, Ladbrokes, Marks & Spencer, Mitchells & Butlers, Pizza Express, Tesco and Thomas Pink.

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Martini, title sponsor of F1 racing team Williams, is partnering Airbnb to offer the chance to spend a night in the Williams Martini Racing garage at the Silverstone Circuit, the night before the 2017 Formula One Rolex British Grand Prix.

One winner and a guest will eat, drink and sleep in the home of one of the world’s most prestigious names in motor racing on July 15, 2017.

Access to the team garage is extremely restricted during a Formula One weekend so the lucky winner and guest will be one of very few people to enter the inner sanctum of the team.

During the Martini and Airbnb experience, the winner will receive a guided tour of the garage and be met by the team’s Deputy Team Principal, Claire Williams, before they sleep next to the 2017 Williams Martini Racing FW40 cars and 50 years of Martini Racing history.

This money can’t buy experience includes meeting Felipe Massa and will culminate in the winners joining Williams Martini Racing for a racing experience of a lifetime which coincides with the team celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Felipe Massa, Williams Martini Racing driver, says: “It’s amazing what Martini has done for racing since its return to Formula One.  They really understand the joy and passion of the sport – and celebrate it on and off the track. For me, the Williams Martini Racing garage has always felt like a home away from home and I can’t wait to welcome the winners at Silverstone this summer.”

Zara Mirza, Global Head of Creative Excellence, Bacardi Limited, adds: “At Martini, we’re not just a racing sponsor, we’re race fans. Aside from driving an F1 car, spending a night in the garage is like waking up in your own racing dream.”

The MARTINI and Airbnb Night at the Williams Martini Racing garage is the latest in Airbnb’s ‘Night at’ series, which sees guests stay in iconic locations around the world. It is open to race fans from April 27 to May 16, 2017. Applicants must be aged 25 and over and a resident of Belgium, Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain or the United Kingdom.

To enter participants must write 100 words or less explaining what they love about racing and why they should be the lucky one chosen to stay the night at the Williams Martini Racing Garage at Silverstone before the 2017 Formula one Rolex British Grand Prix.

More information is at the competition website, airbnb.com/night-at/wmrgarage

Martini has been involved with motorsport since 1968 when Martini Racing was formed. Martini was one of the first non-motorsport brands to sponsor a racing team. Martini signed up as title sponsor of British owned Williams F1 team in 2014; its previous involvement with F1 was with as an official partner of Scuderia Ferrari from 2006 to 2008.

Williams is a leading F1 team and advanced engineering company. Formed in 1977 by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head, the team has secured 16 FIA Formula One World Championship titles since then.

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